'Adding fuel to the fire': Experts warn Trump energy policies come with $650B price tag

The Trump administration’s rollback of clean energy policies will cost American consumers 650 billion in additional energy bills by 2040, according to an analysis published Wednesday by a nonpartisan think tank.Energy Innovation, a San Francisco-based energy and climate policy think tank, said in its report that “federal policy changes since January 2025 will increase energy prices, slow economic growth and job creation, increase air pollution and healthcare costs, and worsen grid reliability.”The analysis examines seven major policy shifts during the second term of President Donald Trump, who—for the third time—ran on an aggressively pro-fossil fuel and anti-clean energy platform:Passage of the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA);The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) reconsideration and repeal of Clean Air Act Greenhouse Gas Standards, Mercury and Air Toxics Standards, and Clean Water Act Effluent Limitations Guidelines for electric power plants;EPA’s repeal of the endangerment finding and federal tailpipe emissions standards;Passage of Congressional Review Act resolutions overturning approvals for state-level tailpipe emissions standards;Actions to limit renewable energy development—especially onshore and offshore wind plants—including limitations on issuance of new permits;Department of Energy cancellations of hydrogen hub funding and easing of 45V tax credit qualification for natural gas-based hydrogen; andEPA’s cancellation of the 7 billion Solar for All grant program.According to the analysis, “Households will pay an additional 650 billion for energy—an average of 460 per household in 2035 and 490 in 2040.”Additionally, the report states that “cutting policies that drive innovation and efficiency in the transportation sector will inflate gasoline prices 14 in 2035 and 26 in 2040, atop near-term upward pressure from the Iran War and other market forces.”“OBBBA and reduced federal support for domestic manufacturing and innovation will cost the US economy 820,000 jobs per year on average over the next decade, in addition to the 144,000 clean energy jobs lost within the past 18 months,” the publication forecasts.“Slowing down electrification and domestic energy manufacturing will lower [gross domestic product] in all years, totaling 2.3 trillion cumulative lost GDP, with effects flowing into other economic sectors,” the study warns. “The US economy will lose 150 billion in GDP in 2030, peaking at a 250 billion net loss in 2032, then reverting to losses of 200 billion in 2035 and 120 billion in 2040.”Furthermore, “worsening local air pollution will raise healthcare costs by 43 billion, with annual increases of 4 billion in 2035 and 4.5 billion in 2040, contributing to rising household costs alongside rising energy prices and goods inflation.”Energy Innovation stressed that states must act to mitigate the costs and harms of federal inaction. The report recommends helping wind and solar projects qualify for expiring tax credits under safe harbor rules, removing barriers to additional clean energy development, boosting electric vehicles, supporting energy efficient electrification, and stimulating investment in new clean industries.The new analysis—whose findings are disputed by the Trump administration—comes amid an unabated affordability crisis that Trump vowed to tackle, and as electricity prices soar in much of the nation as a heat dome, fueled by human burning of fossil fuels, broils large swaths of the country in what many experts warn is the new normal in a worsening climate emergency.Responding to the analysis, Candice Fortin, US campaigns manager at the climate action group 350.org, said: “This report puts numbers on something households are already feeling in their bills and their blackouts. We were told cutting clean energy would lower costs. Instead, we’re seeing the opposite: rates spiking, grids failing under record heat, and households paying more while data centers’ electricity use explodes.”“You can’t fix an affordability crisis by blocking the cheapest, fastest power we have to build,” Fortin added. “The fossil fuel industry and this administration’s policies are adding fuel to the fire, and ordinary ratepayers are the ones getting burned.”